Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Institution
Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Economics
Roads And Resources: Groundwater Depletion In Lankao Country In The North China Plains, Ujjayant N. Chakravorty, Xiangzheng Deng, Yazhen Gong, Martino Pelli, Zhang Qian
Roads And Resources: Groundwater Depletion In Lankao Country In The North China Plains, Ujjayant N. Chakravorty, Xiangzheng Deng, Yazhen Gong, Martino Pelli, Zhang Qian
Ujjayant Chakravorty
China produces most of its food grains in the North China Plains. However, there is evidence that groundwater aquifers in this region are being overexploited. We use a unique GIS-referenced dataset of the depth of the water table for all the 12,000 odd tube wells in Lankao county. We find that the construction of new highways has led to a depletion of the water table in wells close to the highways. This relationship is robust to a variety of controls, including distance to river and primary canals, village and township fixed effects, the date of drilling of the well and …
Does The Quality Of Electricity Matter? Evidence From Rural India, Ujjayant Chakravorty, Martino Pelli, Beyza Ural Marchand
Does The Quality Of Electricity Matter? Evidence From Rural India, Ujjayant Chakravorty, Martino Pelli, Beyza Ural Marchand
Ujjayant Chakravorty
This paper estimates the returns to household income due to improved access to electricity in rural India. We examine the effect of connecting a household to the grid and of the quality of electricity, defined as hours of daily supply. The analysis is based on two rounds of a representative panel of more than 10,000 households. We use the district-level density of transmission cables as instrument for the electrification status of the household. We find that a grid connection increases non-agricultural incomes of rural households by about 9 percent during the study period (1994-2005). However, a grid connection and a …
Water Allocation Under Distribution Losses: Comparing Alternative Institutions, Ujjayant N. Chakravorty, Eithan Hochman, Chieko Umetsu, David Zilberman
Water Allocation Under Distribution Losses: Comparing Alternative Institutions, Ujjayant N. Chakravorty, Eithan Hochman, Chieko Umetsu, David Zilberman
Ujjayant Chakravorty
The distribution of water resources is characterized by increasing returns to scale. Distribution links water generation to its end-use. Standard economic analysis overlooks the interaction among these micro-markets - generation, distribution and end-use. We compare water allocation when there is market power in each micro-market. These outcomes are compared with benchmark cases - social planning and a competitive business-as-usual regime. Simulations suggest that institutions with market power in generation and end-use generate significantly higher welfare than the distribution monopoly and the competitive regime. However, if the policy goal is to maximize the size of the grid, a distribution monopoly is …